Principal Matthews the face and heart of Imagine school

Justin Matthews is the 'heart and soul' of Imagine School at North Port.

By GABRIELLE RUSSONgabrielle.russon@heraldtribune.com

Justin Matthews is fair game as he stands in front of Imagine School at North Port.

A dad calls Matthews over to his car to report a speeding bus driver. A chubby-cheeked boy cheerfully complaining he was bullied by a girl appears at Matthews' side.

"I solve more problems in my arrival and dismissal than my entire school day," says Matthews, the highly visible principal who has been a fixture outside the school twice a day for five years.

Now, as Matthews fights his former bosses for control of the charter school, his legion of loyal parents and teachers tout him as the face of Imagine.

He is the principal who plays a Taylor Swift song on his guitar in the talent show, coaches wrestling and knows the biographies on his 1,100 students — not just their names but who comes from a broken home, struggles in math or is or is not popular.

"Mr. Matthews is the heart and soul of this school," says Londa Wik, a North Port mother who rallied for the embattled leader at a recent School Board meeting.

His critics are much less charitable.

They accuse Matthews of stealing the school and creating a distracting controversy in the middle of the school year, just as students were taking their critical FCAT tests.

"The disregard for the parents, for the kids, for the teachers, it is crazy. I've never seen anything like it before," said Port Charlotte parent Kristina Stoltzfus. "I feel Mr. Matthews has made this all about Mr. Matthews."

On Feb. 15, the charter school's local governing board unexpectedly fired its Virginia parent company, setting off a chain of court hearings and media coverage. Imagine Schools, which operates about 70 charter schools across the country, sued Matthews and the local board in Sarasota County Circuit Court.

Judge Charles Williams ordered the two sides to mediation and ruled Matthews and his local board can stay until May 31, the end of the school year.

What happens after that is unknown.

On a school day last week, a bundled stack of newspapers carry a bold Imagine headline above the fold in the school's lobby, down the hallway from Matthews' office.

Matthews, 37, cannot seem to escape the courtroom fight.

"Imagine has made this a referendum on me," he says. "I've been painted as a leader of a coup, which is ironic because I'm the founding principal."

A natural performer

As a child, Matthews did everything ahead of schedule.

Before the age of 2, he read road signs.

At 4, he started kindergarten and memorized the books his mother read to him.

"He was a lover of books before he was old enough to turn the page," said Karen Matthews, who enrolled Justin in advanced classes. "We knew right then he was gifted, but the thing is he was just a normal kid."

He played outside with his younger brother, Jeff, and liked sports.

When Justin was in kindergarten, the Matthews family relocated from Columbus, Ohio, to Knoxville, Tenn. His father, Leo, worked in the corporate offices for grocery distribution companies.

Growing up, Matthews said he struggled to fit in, especially during his middle school years. He went to a school where good grades and behaving did not win popularity contests.

"I stood out in the wrong ways," Matthews said.

But it would later shape him into a principal who notices children looking in from the outside, Matthews said.

In 1990, his family moved to Florida. Matthews began his freshman year at Bloomingdale High School in the south Tampa suburbs.

He was happier than he had been in Knoxville. In fact, he thrived. He was on the honor roll, even when he was sick with mononucleosis for six weeks as a 10th-grader.

His senior year, he wrestled on the varsity team and was the tenor soloist in the choir.

He could not read music but loved performing, playing Pontius Pilate in "Jesus Christ Superstar," Tony in "West Side Story" and the lead in "Phantom of the Opera" in local productions.

After graduating high school in 1993, Matthews headed to the University of South Florida uncertain of a career path. He was 17.

Two years later, on a whim, he auditioned for a full-ride music scholarship at the University of Florida.

He won it, transferred and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's in music education.

In 2000, he got his first teaching gig at Lawton Chiles Elementary, a public school in Gainesville. He taught music there for six years, but his ambitions were higher.

"I knew I wanted to be more than just a music teacher," he said.

In June 2005, he was promoted to assistant principal at Imagine School at Weston, an elementary with more than 900 students.

Over the years, he also returned to get his master's degree at UF, where he would meet his future wife, Ann, in class.

Matthews proposed on the top of a mountain in Colorado even though he had been afraid of heights as a youngster.

The couple, now married 10 years, recently had their first child, Clara. Ann works as a guidance counselor at Port Charlotte High School.

Even as he rose through the ranks in the corporate charter chain, Matthews kept his love for music.

He plays guitar and sings in Sunday Punch — a classic rock cover band that includes a parent, a mailman and an Imagine computer teacher.

The band draws an Imagine teacher crowd when they play at restaurants and charity events.

Opinions mixed

The average age of a Sarasota County principal at a traditional high school is 51. Matthews was 32 when he became the head principal in North Port.

In 2012, his salary as principal was $97,850.

He brought almost immediate academic success.

Since 2008, Imagine School at North Port has become the largest charter school in the county and received an "A" rating three years in a row from the state.

This school year, the high school campus is expanding with a new gym and six classrooms, while the football team ended its inaugural season with a 7-4 record.

Much credit goes to Matthews for the school's success, several parents and teachers said.

"To keep continuing, we need Justin leading us," said Jada Campbell, an Imagine language arts teacher. "If anybody else came into the picture, we would lose what we have. It would never be the same."

Teachers describe Matthews as a devoted principal.

He steps in to teach a math lesson when a teacher has a family emergency or mentors rookie staffers. He gives his oversized sports coat to a skinny fourth-grade girl shivering outside on a cloudy Wednesday.

When a new teacher's twin daughters were born prematurely, Matthews let him take time off to be with his family.

But some perceive another side to the youthful administrator, describing Matthews as arrogant, especially after his profile rose during the dispute with the school's corporate parent. His directness tends to divide the school's camps.

"Arrogance and confidence are very closely related," said Park Carrier, an Imagine math teacher. "I think they mistake it for confidence, and knowing what he's doing is right."